Online lecture to students in China

On Friday, September 20th, from 8:30 am to 9:30 am (ET), I gave an online lecture to visual art students in China.

The title of the lecture is Using Imagery to Convey Thoughts Across Time.

In this lecture, we explored various topics, including my 60-year creative journey, the challenges I've faced, and how to effectively use imagery to tell stories.

This online lecture was organized by Inspiration Drawer. Special thanks to Jin Xiaojing for her effort in making it happen.

 

 

 

 

Here is a "Rip Kirby" daily strip by Alex Raymond from the story "The Laughs on Giggles," featuring Giggles Magee.

This strip was published on September 27th, 1955—fun coincidence, just two days after I was born.

"Rip Kirby" is an American comic strip created by Alex Raymond and Ward Greene featuring the adventures of private detective "Rip Kirby". The strip ran from 1946 to 1999 and was in the hands of artist John Prentice for more than 40 years. During Raymond's years on the strip, the stories were initially written by Ward Greene, and later, following Greene's death, by Fred Dickenson. Some sequences were also written by Raymond. In 1956, Raymond was killed in a car crash. King Features quickly needed a replacement, and found it in John Prentice.

Here’s a link to see my other "Rip Kirby" daily strip by Alex Raymond. And here, here, and here, you can see "Rip Kirby" by John Prentice.

 

 

Rip Kirby's hairy arms

In the late 60s I was living in Zagrab, Croatia/Yugoslavia at that time and despite being a communist country they published a lot of comics. Especially in newspapers, one of them was Rip Kirby but at that time already drawn by John Prentice. I discovered much later that it was original drawn by Alex Raymond. 

 There were two things that made comics very fascinating for me that had nothing to do with art even though earlier versions of drawings by John Prentice were very skillful. One was he had a butler, in communist countries and probably even outside of them, it was unheard of. Bruce Wayne was at least living in a castle, it’s a huge place you need a butler to help you out. But Rip Kirby was living in an apartment in New York, why would he need a butler? Other P.I.’s had female companions/secretaries/assistants… Rip Kirby has a butler? 

Another fascinating thing for me was that he had hairy arms. I never saw anyone drawing a comic hero with hairy arms. That was partly appealing to me because I was coming from a country of hairy male.

Here are links to more, and more, and more Rip Kirby comics from my collection.

 

"Flash Gordon" by Dan Barry

Recently, I acquired two consecutive daily strips of Flash Gordon by Dan Barry: one from November 1, and the other from November 2, 1965. These strips may not be his most amazing work, but they are drawn solely by Dan Barry.

Previously, I have collected several Flash Gordon comics by Barry, mostly those he created in collaboration with Bob Fujitani, which are later Flash Gordon comics produced after 1976.

You can view my other acquisitions of Dan Barry's comics here, here, here, and here.

 

 

A.C. 2020 selected winners by American Illustration book

The prestigious American Illustration has announced the selected winners for their AI43 book. I am happy to announce that two of my A.C.2020 comics/visual essays have been selected for inclusion.

I originally created this series to express my anxiety and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over time, I also tried to address my other anxieties and visual observations beyond the pandemic in the series.

Each visual essay comprises self-contained single-page stories created in greyish-blue tones to reflect the subject.

Here is a link to see, among other things, my other A.C.2020 comics.

"Alex in Wonderland" Movie Poster

My recent acquisition. I managed to get a second copy of a very rare and unusual movie poster by Milton Glaser for "Alex in Wonderland” from 1970.

Poster "Moj Muž" in Festival in Gdansk, Poland

I am pleased to let you know that my poster "Moj muž" (My Husband) for JDP-Yugoslav Drama Theater in Belgrade, Serbia is on exhibition as a part of the "Poster Festival And Now East" at the Plenum art gallery in Gdansk, Poland. 

The show includes over 150 posters and opened on the 2nd of August, 2024 as a part of this year's Panato Targi Sztuki & Designu LATO. It was organized by AndNowEast & Local Design Circle, co-organized by Panato Targi & Plenum, and curated by Bartosz Moms.

You can see and read more about the "Moj muž" poster here.

 

Once, I shared covers and back covers bylines with Breccia, Bilal, Eisner, Corben, Toppi, Gimenez, Jones, and many more of my idols and comic legends.

Here are some of the covers of the Spanish comic magazines "1984" and "Ilustracion + Comix Internacional", published by "Toutain Editor" in 70's and 80's.

 

"Small Formats Gallery" Bol, Croatia

Walking through Bol, a small town on the island of Brac in Croatia, my friend suggested we visit the "Small Formats Gallery". She surprised me when she said: "And your art is also inside". Of course I entered. The ego must be satisfied.

I was very surprised when I saw my art, which I had completely forgotten, called "Postcard from the Golden Horn" made of small pebbles from the famous Bol beach Golden Horn (Zlatni rat). I made this work in 2002, when I was invited to Bol by Ivica Karničić to be part of an art workshop organized by him.

"Cisco Kid' by Jose Luis Salinas

I recently acquired these two partial daily comic strips of Cisco Kid by Jose Luis Salinas from 1952. It is beautiful to see on Salinas' originals, how gently and easily, without any “suffering" he applied the ink with the stroke of a brush, without needing any corrections. 

These two partial panels are from the story called Deadly Stage Ride. The panels are probably partial because, believe it or not, at that time it was common practice for the syndicate to cut the strips and send a panel or two to, for example, fans who wrote and asked. Looking through the Cisco Kid book trying to find how the complete comic strip looks, I was quite pleased to find that on the top of the page of one of them is a comic strip that I already have. Pure coincidence.

 

Modesty Blaise by Neville Colvin

When one says Modesty Blaise, the first thing that comes to mind is the iconic artwork of Jim Holdaway. Unfortunately, the work of Neville Colvin gets overlooked. 

I recently acquired two strips from a Neville Colvin comic from 1984. The first frame in both strips are excellent examples of Colvin’s craftsmanship. He is bleeding random brush and pen strokes, which almost brings the drawing to a level of abstraction. But at the same time, everything is there. 

Here is a link to my previous acquisition of Modesty Blaise by Colvin.

 

Poster for "The Last Cowboy"

This is my poster design for the documentary film "The Last Cowboy”.

"The Last Cowboy is documentary film about the eternal dreamer from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hari Džekson. The American wild west was out of his reach so he created his own right at home and in the sixties officially changed his name from Aljuš Musli to Hari Džekson. This is a film about a man who created an illusory reality from his dreams of being a heroic cowboy who would save the world, in which he himself lived. He was a fan of westerns and he filmed a couple of them, in which good always triumphs over bad. When the world he dreamed about collapsed due to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, so did his dreams collapse and he along with them. His film about cowboys who saved and at the same time decorated the world in the middle of Balkan, remained unfinished. But some of his friends tried to finish the open ending he had left.”

"Few years ago in Ljubljana I met Mirko Ilić, graphic designer who was born in Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina and who lives and works in New York City today. I interviewed him for RTV Slovenia. He told me about the man who filmed westerns by the river Drina, who knew everything about western films, who officially changed his name from Aljuš Musli to Hari Dzekson, whom the inhabitants of Bijeljina considered a kind of court jester… I didn't believe him. The story sounded unbelievable. It sounded too Hollywood. I thought, of course, Mirko comes from America. The next day I verified the story online and I saw movie material. It was a script that wrote itself. In other words, Mirko Ilić offered me a script that just needed to be written. Thus was born a film about a cowboy who lived his dreams and dreamed his whole life.” 

–Tadej Čater, documentary film director

You can read more about Hari Džekson here and here.

 

Photo of city of Bijeljina is by Ajdin Kamber.

 

 

 

Comic "Trees" by Jason Howard

My recent acquisition is page 12 from the third episode of the comic Trees from 2014. The art is done by Jason Howard. I bought this comic exclusively because of the beautiful textures which were unfortunately destroyed when the comic was colorized.

 

Today on the Streets of Zagreb, Croatia

My billboard and poster announcement design for the 13th Miroslav Krleža Festival are on the streets of Zagreb, Croatia again today for the third time. 

Miroslav Krleža (1893-1981) was the most celebrated Croatian writer. In 2021, I was asked to create a poster and billboard for the 10th Miroslav Krleža Festival. I created Krleža’s profile wearing his characteristic hat, and because one of his most famous novels is titled Zastave (The Flags), I made his profile out of all incarnations of Croatian flags during his lifetime.

Originally, the organizer of the festival, Teatar Poezije Zagreb, assigned a new poster design every year. Because they were pleased with my designs they have used it every year since.